“The book uses a structure that mirrors many university courses on linguistics – with separate chapters focusing on linguistic thought, syntax, sound systems, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, language acquisition, and much more.”

P. H. Matthews, Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2003)

“Linguistics falls in the gap between arts and science, on the edges of which the most fascinating discoveries and the most important problems are found… thematic chapters look in turn at such areas as the prehistory of languages and their common origins, language and evolution, language in time and space (the nature of change inherent in language), grammars and dictionaries (how systematic is language?), and phonetics. Explication of the newest discoveries pertaining to language in the brain completes the coverage of all major aspects of linguistics…”

“In this best-selling introductory textbook, Janet Holmes and Nick Wilson examine the role of language in a variety of social contexts, considering both how language works and how it can be used to signal and interpret various aspects of social identity.”

The Shelf Test

You are standing on the ground floor of SOAS University of London library, with a subject guide in your hand. Classmarks include Applied linguistics, Bilingualism, Etymology, Grammar, Mathematical linguistics, Phonology and Phonetics, Pigeons and creoles, Second-language acquisition, Syntax, Translation and interpretation and Writing systems. As well as Asian and African languages and language families, there are references to American Indian languages, Basque, Finno-Ugrian languages, and Creole languages.

“to get the reader started doing linguistic analysis of sentences and phrases (that is, syntactic analysis)…”

but a book on phonology has drawn your attention:

Francis Katamba, An Introduction to Phonology (Longman, 1989).

You read a passage (p.47) in which the author discusses the nature of the speech organs:

“The vocal tract is a long tube with holes at both the lip end and the throat end. The shape of this tube can be modified by rounding the lips and making them protrude – and thus elongating the tube.”

You round your lips and form an exploratory pout. Too late! 30 minutes are up. Time to put your introductory reading list to the final test.

An Academic’s response: Dr Christopher Lucas

Some introductory books:

P. H. Matthews, Linguistics: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2003) is definitely an excellent place to start.

Thereafter, I recommend acquainting yourself early on with some of the major controversies in the field of linguistics. A good way to get started with this is to read the following two books, written by two of the most famous linguists working today, with two very different approaches to how we should understand language. Whose outlook and approach do you prefer and why?

Daniel Everett, Don’t Sleep: There Are Snakes (Profile Books, 2009) tells the fascinating story of the author’s many years of fieldwork studying the language of the Pirahã people of Amazonia. We also learn how, through his work with the Pirahã, Everett became convinced that the fundamental ideas of the world’s most influential linguist, Noam Chomsky, were flawed.

Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct (Penguin Books, 1994), by contrast, is an accessible and entertaining introduction to those big ideas of Chomsky’s, as well as a surprisingly comprehensive overview of many of the most important and interesting topics that linguists collectively investigate.

If you finish both of those, then I recommend two books by Guy Deutscher, which investigate two of the most fascinating questions in language: why do languages change, and how does the language you speak influence the way you think?